Wickliffe Elementary students learn about what floats their boats (with video)

Jeff Forman/JForman@News-Herald.comThird-grader Kayla Hayes, 9, looks wary as lifeguard Taylor Carroscia, left, helps steady her boat Wednesday during the Wickliffe Schools ImagiNation Boat Float at Quality Inn of Wickliffe. Helping in the back is teacher Ginger Leonard. The program was part of the Above & Beyond program for gifted students. Taylor, 17, is in the 11th gade.

A hotel swimming pool turned into a classroom Wednesday night for a group of Wickliffe Elementary School students.

But it wasn't a swimming lesson, and you didn't see any of the kids sitting poolside in deck chairs and taking notes.

Instead, the kids donned their bathing suits and navigated the length of the Quality Inn of Wickliffe's swimming pool in small boats they had built out of cardboard milk cartons and duct tape.

Advertisement

"ImagiNation Boat Float" was part of a learning unit for 21 third- and fourth-graders who are part of Wickliffe Schools' Above & Beyond program for academically gifted students.

"The boat float is part of a big unit -- called 'Trip to ImagiNation' -- that the students have been working on this semester about imagination, creativity, problem solving, boat science, biography -- all kind of things are involved in it," said Ginger Leonard, a teacher in the A & B program at Wickliffe Middle School.

The program encompasses academically gifted students in third through seventh grades in Wickliffe. Elementary students in the program come to the middle school once a week for A & B classes, Leonard said.

On Wednesday, the 21 third- and fourth-graders -- cheered on by parents, grandparents and siblings -- each made a solo voyage from one end of the pool to the other.

"What's our goal?" Leonard shouted to the students before the first boat set sail.

"Not to get wet!" the kids replied in unison.

"The last time we did this four years ago, no one got wet. All the boats made it," Leonard said.

Each student propelled his or her boat with customized paddles, most of them consisting of wooden or plastic broomsticks and outfitted at the base with items such as dustpans or paint-can lids. However, at least one students did his rowing with a small plastic snow shovel.

Leonard was joined in the water by a lifeguard who helped guide each boat in a relatively straight line.

Fourth-grader Logan Meier, 9, was among the first students to paddle his boat across the pool.

"It actually went better than I thought," Logan said.

With "ImagiNation Boat Float," students learned about concepts such as buoyancy, displacement and how to streamline a boat so it cuts through the water, Leonard said.

In addition to Quality Inn of Wickliffe providing use of its pool, Shur Tech Brands of Avon donated a supply of its Duck brand duct tape for the project, and Tofts Dairy of Sandusky contributed 500 milk cartons.

When the third- and fourth-graders return to a regular classroom for their next A & B class, they'll evaluate the success of the "ImagiNation Boat Float" fleet.

"We'll talk about and analyze what boats worked well, what didn't, and what problems they had with their boats when we get back, before we go on with the other things in this unit," Leonard said.